1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to information technology, and more particularly, to a storage server embedded code backup method and system, which is designed for use with a storage server in a network system for backup of the storage server's embedded code, including the storage server's operating system and applications so that in the event of the embedded code being corrupted, it can provide a backup recovery to the corrupted code to allow the storage server to resume normal operation.
2. Description of Related Art
Storage server is a network-linked computer platform which is commonly used in large business entities to provide users with a network-accessible data storage means for the users to store their data via network to the storage server. A storage server is typically equipped with a mass storage unit having a very large storage capacity, such as a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) unit, which allows users to gain access via network to the storage server's RAID unit for storage and retrieval of large volumes of data.
To help increase performance, storage server typically utilizes a nonvolatile programmable memory, such as flash memory, to hold the computer code of its operating system and applications. For this reason, the computer code of the storage server's operating system and applications is customarily referred to as “embedded code”. The use of embedded code can help significantly increase the performance of the storage server since access to memory is faster than access to hard disks. Presently, the total amount of embedded code in a storage server, including the storage server's operating system and applications, is about 8 MB to 16 MB (megabyte). Therefore, if redundancy is to be provided to the embedded code, a conventional solution is to install an additional 8 MB to 16 MB memory module to the storage server to hold a duplicated copy of the embedded code. However, since nonvolatile programmable memory such as flash memory is typically quite expensive, it would be undoubtedly quite cost-ineffective to use additional memory modules to provide redundant backup capability to the storage server. For this sake, small company's storage server is typically installed with only a single copy of operating system and applications in the storage server's system memory, and no redundant backup facility is provided. Therefore, once the embedded code in the storage server is corrupted, it would cause the storage server to halt its data service, which may cause even greater loss to the company.